BEIJING - Hundreds of screaming Chinese fans turned up on Monday to see actor Daniel Craig at the premiere of the first ever James Bond movie to be shown at theatres in China.

"Ling ling qi" -- Chinese for 007 -- has never before been officially released in the world's most populous country, and new James Bond Craig and leading lady Eva Green flew in especially for the event.

Actor Daniel Craig poses during a news conference to promote the latest James Bond movie 'Casino Royale', in Beijing January 29, 2007. [Reuters]

"It's been an ambition of mine to get here, and I wish I had more time," a casually dressed Craig told reporters while sipping coffee in a five-star hotel ahead of the premiere.

Craig chatted with fans and signed autographs at the cinema in Beijing's fashionable Wangfujing shopping district which laid out a red carpet welcome for him and Green, who plays Vesper Lynd, a prickly official at the British Treasury.

Executives expect the film -- in which a moodier, more chiselled Bond battles an evil banker to the world's terrorists -- to be the biggest grossing foreign movie ever in the Chinese mainland, with receipts seen exceeding 100 million yuan (6.6 million pounds).

It has already earned some $350 million (178.7 million pounds) worldwide.

Director Martin Campbell admitted he was unsure of the reaction the film would get in China, but said he was pleased Chinese would finally get a chance to see Bond up close.

"After 21 films, it's obviously very significant, given that we are the first Bond film to be shown here," he said. "The fact that we got it through without any censor cuts at all seems to me to be some kind of achievement."

"I don't think they mind the violence. It's interesting that we had a tiny bit cut in England, and we had a little bit of the violence trimmed in America," the New Zealand-born Campbell said.

The full, original version is being shown in China both dubbed into Chinese and in the original English.